Rum do in Alderney

Widget Finn joins the locals for Milk-o-punch Sunday to experience the Channel Island's convivial way of welcoming the spring.

12:01AM BST 25 Apr 2004

Guernsey has long encouraged the legend that the population of its much smaller neighbour, Alderney, consists of 2,000 drunks clinging to a rock. Of course this is quite untrue — the islanders of Alderney are a sober, upright lot. But the story may have originated with a Guernseyman who heard rumours about the island's ancient tradition of Milk-o-punch Sunday.

Alderney, which is just three miles by one-and-a-half, has 13 pubs, hotels and clubs. If you visit one of these establishments next Sunday — the first Sunday in May — you will be offered a free glass of milk-o-punch, a deceptively innocent-tasting drink of milk, eggs, sugar and nutmeg with a bracer of rum.

Sybil Mesney, whose family has lived on Alderney since the mid-1800s, describes how the tradition originated. "Islanders used to celebrate moving the cows out to their summer pastures at the beginning of May by taking a bucket to the fields, filling it with milk — which in those days meant milking the cow yourself — breaking in some seagull eggs, adding a tot of rum and some nutmeg and drinking a toast to the new season. When I was a child in the 1930s, my uncle used to take me along with a three-legged stool to milk the cow on Milk-o-punch Sunday.

"All the islanders were evacuated during the Second World War when German troops invaded and occupied Alderney. When we returned in 1945 there was no free milk any more, but the local pubs adopted the tradition of Milk-o-punch."

Sybil, who uses 18 pints of milk, two bottles of the best rum, sugar and nutmeg to make the punch for Alderney's Sailing Club, adds a secret ingredient from her family recipe. Getting the right balance of milk to punch is an art honed over the years and there's intense rivalry among island establishments for the best mix.

Last year a party of enthusiasts, in the spirit of pure research, started at the top of the town and tasted their way down the hill to Crabby Bay. They sat on a bench to admire the view and when they woke up it was dark.

The best place to start your sampling is near the harbour at the Divers Inn, a favourite with sailors and fishermen. The floor of the long, narrow bar is covered with flagstones freshly dusted with sand each day, and the walls are hung with fading photographs of ships and stormy seas. From the window the view of the silver crescent of Braye beach probably hasn't changed much since John Wesley stayed here in 1787 and preached to the islanders on the evils of drink. Judging by the Divers' convivial atmosphere, his lessons haven't been taken to heart.

A brisk walk up Braye Hill, edged with banks of wild garlic and bluebells, works up a thirst for another glass of punch at the The Georgian House, the elegant hotel in the centre of the tiny town of St Anne's. Here it is poured from a miniature milk churn into a silver punch bowl and served with an antique ladle to regulars. Continue up the cobbled main street, lined with colour-washed 18th- century houses, to the Coronation Inn, where locals gather to catch up with the news and play shove ha'penny.

In Marais Square, an ancient stone trough marks the site where Alderney cows were sold for shipment to America in the early 1900s. Nearby, the Marais Hall, which was built, according to a hand-written sign above the door, in "1750-ish", is the final stop-off for Alderney punch.

After a hard morning's sampling, the best way to clear your head is to take a bracing walk along the cliffs carpeted with dazzling golden gorse and vivid sea pinks. And if you see a distant figure weaving unsteadily towards you along the headland, it's almost certainly a Guernseyman — they just don't have the stamina for Milk-o-punch Sunday.

Getting thereAurigny Air Services (01481 822886; www.aurigny.com) has return flights from Southampton to Alderney for £147, flying out on Saturday, returning on Sunday after the Milk-o-punch celebrations. Contact Aurigny for details of special packages, to include return flights via Jersey or Guernsey from Bournemouth, Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester, East Midlands or Bristol airports. Further information from the Alderney Tourist Office (01481 823737; www.alderney.net).